


Rewind

by coalitiongirl_ficlets (coalitiongirl)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Time Travel, post 4b
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:55:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4340255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/pseuds/coalitiongirl_ficlets
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma goes back in time, meets Mayor Mills, is inexplicably charmed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rewind

**Author's Note:**

> Not a Swan Queen Week fic, but I thought today was as good as any to move this particular fic to AO3! The prompt was "Emma goes back in time to s1 Storybrooke and gets sentimental over [that] Regina."

She’d expected that the dagger would…turn her into the Dark One or something, but there must have been some kind of hitch in that plan because she’s abruptly standing in the station with Regina smirking at her in a particularly spine-tingling way that she hasn’t in years.

“Regina,” she says cautiously. “The dagger didn’t get you, did it?”

Regina stares at her as though she’s lost her mind. “Are you threatening me, Sheriff?”

And only then does she make the connection. Regina’s hair is shorter (kind of bouncy, she notices offhand) and she’s staring at Emma with so much contempt and danger in her eyes that it has Emma a little breathless. This isn’t  _her_  Regina, this is the one who’d done everything in her power to chase Emma out of Storybrooke. “Uh. Nope.” 

Regina’s eyes narrow. Emma notices suddenly that she’s smiling fondly and makes a feeble attempt to wipe the smile off her face. “Sorry. You were saying?”

“I was  _saying_.” Regina presses forward, close enough to file a sexual harassment claim, probably. Ah, yes,  _definitely_  curse Regina. Emma can feel the smile curling higher up her cheeks. Regina glares. “Listen closely, Miss Swan. If you plan to keep this job and continue to force me to tolerate your sad, empty existence, you’d do well to remember to  _complete your paperwork…_.”

“Or you’ll destroy me?” Emma offers.

Regina’s eyes spit fire and Emma is charmed despite herself. Regina as she remembers her from this year had been larger-than-life, a terror of a boss and frustratingly evil. She hadn’t remembered her being this… _cute_ , really, like a compact force of nature overreacting at every turn.

“Relax, Regina, I’ll get it done,” she says, mostly to watch the way that Regina contains an explosion of fury. She’s seen the Evil Queen, sneering and scorching her way through every encounter, and maybe it’s just nostalgia-tinted glasses that have her so pleased to see Regina’s face twist in the same way again.

Or maybe it had been the fear of minutes before, watching the darkness envelop Regina and terrified that it might take her from Emma.  _From the town_ , she corrects herself, a moment too slow.

She reaches out and seizes Regina’s hand in an attempt to comfort herself-  _Regina solid and safe and close enough to touch_ \- and Regina says, “What the hell are you doing?”

But she isn’t pulling away, and when Emma lets go, Regina stumbles forward into her arms. Emma catches her, wraps her into her embrace.  _Regina, safe and sound_ , she thinks again, and brushes a kiss against her forehead.

There’s a roar of noise around her and she blinks. Regina is gone- had she ever been there at all?- and there’s a maelstrom of black energy whirling around her, calling her back into the darkness of the dagger.


End file.
